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TEST 2 3/TEST 3 3
(Some Bizzare / EMI, TEST 2-3, 1984) 2x12" box set with
cards, poster etc, reissued as (Phonogram / Mercury, TEST 33,
1987) LP, reissued as BEATING A RETREAT (Thirsty Ear X21205, 1997)
CD Enhanced and CD (NB: track order varies depending on release
date)
Production:
1 - Ken Thomas; 2,5,7 - Ken Thomas / Test Dept; 3 - Test Dept;
4,6 - Trigger / Test Dept; 8 - Genesis P Orridge / Test Dept
Recorded at Jacobs Studios, Farnham, Surrey
Engineered by Ken Thomas / Mark Stent / Alan Cross
Test Dept With:
F M Einheit - Tapes/Scrapes
Audrey Riley - Cello
Fiona Thompson - Harp
Also:
Brett Turnbull - Film / Visuals
Paul "Slug" Hines - Live Tapes
"One Eyed" Jack Balchin - Live Sound
Gary "Manson" Wignall - Transport / Maintenance
Yan "French Lieutenant" Devreux - Assistance
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BEATING THE RETREAT was TD's debut LP after signing to the Some
Bizzare stable, originally released as a double vinyl box set
through Phonogram. The record company could not handle the politics
of the group and it proved to be their last release for a major
label. It was also the name of TD's first illegal performance
at Arch 69 which although sparsely attended on a Saturday lunchtime
was to send shockwaves through the underground scene, TD had most
definately arrived.
"The most astute and underrated song of the Eighties so far
exhorts us all to "keep feeling fascination" - its obvious
surely, that the facility to wonder is our only remedy left against
the desensitised rituals mummifying popular music into irrelevant
showbiz. So why don't we listen? So much is new yet nothing is
new, there's nothing we have'nt heard to the point of numb familiarity.
Well thats what I thought until I found Test Dept...
This Test Dept thing knows the power of doubt and the paralysis
born of fear, gestures in awe of it, works in wonder of it, can't
get to grips with it but, crucially won't succumb to it. Unique
in todays pop depression, it confronts the cynicism adopted against
the innefectiveness of our individual wills. That TD exist at
all, after Thatcher's Falklands death-blow to our belief that
public desire dictates anything, is a miracle indeed. Whether
their refusal to accede to the brow-beaten zeitgeist can act as
the catalyst to spark some new enthusiasm I can't say. But I sense
that TD alone; today feel fascination." Steve Sutherland
(Melody Maker)
(Cover Photograph - Richard H Smith)
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